Though Chinese cinema has as long and rich a history as American cinema, we did not really begin to see its films until about a decade ago, with the success of Fifth Generation films like "Ju Dou," "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Farewell My Concubine."

Now New York's China Century Entertainment has put together "A Celebration of Chinese Cinema," an exciting and groundbreaking tour of Chinese films, dating from 1952 to 2000, complete with new translations and subtitles. The tour hits the Bay Area this week, gracing the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael (Sept. 14-18), followed by the Four Star Theater in San Francisco (Sept. 16, 21-27) and the Camera Cinemas' Towne Theater in San Jose (Sept. 16-20).

The most recent film in the series, Feng Xiaogang's "A Sigh," plays a little like a Douglas Sirk melodrama complete with heartbreak, revenge and attempted suicide. It lacks the high style and perfect poetry of Sirk, though, and it can be a little hard to take. (I have to confess that this is not my favorite film genre -- not by a long shot.)

In the film, a successful television writer (Zhang Guoli) falls in love with a writing student (Liu Pei) assigned to assist him. At first he carries on an affair with her, but his perceptive wife (Xu Fan) figures out the deception and splits up with him. The writer then ping-pongs back and forth between his mistress and his wife and daughter. Director Feng keeps everything nice and literal, underlining the emotional truthfulness and indecisiveness of such a horrifying situation, but it's a truly trying experience. (Feng has just completed an English-language film starring Donald Sutherland and Paul Mazursky.)

The festival also includes "New Year's Sacrifice" (1956), adapted from a 1930s leftist novel by Lu Xun and made possible by Mao Zedong's "100 Flowers Movement," which allowed more liberalism in the arts. The film follows a poor woman forced to work as a servant before being kidnapped by her mother-in-law and forced to marry.